The
common term for
ego used in the Qur'an and Sunnah is "Kibr".
This is different from "Kibar" which means "old age". Kibr is regarded
as a reason to block one from entering Jannah (Paradise). Muhammad (a.s.s)
said:

"One
does not enter Jannah who has in his heart a mustard seed's weight of Kibr".

Understandably,
the Sahabah (companions of the Muhammad –may Allah’s peace and blessing
be upon him) were terrified by this statement. One of them asked the Prophet
(a.s.s) "I like my dress to be clean and my shoes to be clean" The
Prophet (a.s.s) replied: "That is not it. Allah is Beautiful and He likes
Beauty" Then he went on explaining: al-kibru batarul Haqqi wa ghamtun naas

"Kibr
is rejecting the truth and belittling people."

The Qur'an tells
us in many Ayaat that those who have Kibr "al-mutakabbereen" have one place,
the Hell Fire. The Qur'an and Sunnah also attack the root of the problem
by reminding the human being, in many places, of his origin (mire, clay,
a worthless drop of fluid, etc.) so that he would have no reason to become
arrogant.

The two major
manifestations of Kibr are the ones mentioned in the Hadeeth above:

1. Batar-ul-Haqq:

Rejection
of the truth: this is manifested when one does not accept the clear truth,
presented to him on a clear evidence from Qur'an and Sunnah. Remember
that there is often room for multiple interpretations; therefore, accepting
one interpretation more than another is not a sign of Kibr. Kibr
is when one puts his own opinion before the clear "nass" (textual evidence).
Included in Batar-ul-Haqq is also when someone accepts the truth selectively,
meaning if it serves his interest, or if it comes from certain people and
not others.

2. Ghamt-un-Naas:

Belittling
others: This happens when one feels he is superior to others. Imam Ghazali
reminds us that there is always reason to think the opposite, i.e., that
anyone else could be better than you. For example, when you see someone
who has less wealth than you, you should say to yourself: "this person
has much less to be asked about on the Day of Judgement, therefore he must
be better than me." If you see someone who is older than you, you say:
"this person has had more time to worship Allah and do good deeds, so he
must be better than me.” If he is younger: "this man has had less time
to disobey Allah, so he must be better than me." and so on. Just find reasons
to think people are better than you.

What should not
be considered a manifestation of Kibr is when people express their opinions
forcefully and try every possible argument to support it. That is, of course,
if they are willing to admit their mistakes when they are proven to be
wrong and acknowledge their ignorance when they do not know an answer to
a question.

So before passing
judgements about people having inflated egos etc., one should really be
careful based on the above. In fact, why just not leave the judging
to al-Hakam (The Judge) al-Adl (The Just), i.e., Allah SWT and relieve
us from the prospect of being asked on the Day of Resurrection to justify
our judgement. We gain nothing by being judgmental, and the potentialloss could
be tremendous.

What we should
keep ourselves busy with most of the time is to look deeply into our own
hearts. From my own personal experience with my own heart, the deeper
I look, the more terrified I get, because what I find there, most of the
time, is unthinkable, and also unmentionable.

So may Allah
help us see our own shortcomings and enable us to work on them. And may
Allah not make us like him who sees a splinter in his brother's eye and
fails to see a tree branch sticking out of his own eye, as Abu Hurairah
(RA) said.